Outside Camp Chapman
Planet M051
As she watched the distance to the site tick down, she could see the telltale signs of heavy combat. Flashes of weapons fire lit up the horizon. The Armadillos overtook Haley’s Centurion soon after she set her Mech into motion. Sergeant Rook wasn’t too happy that she took off, and he yelled several curse word statements to punctuate his displeasure with her. She didn’t care her focus now was to get into the fight.
“Fight?” she thought. None of them have seen any real combat outside of the Sim. That is when the nerves hit. No. She had to suppress the fear that was nagging at her. She was piloting this machine of destruction and the rest of the ground troops were counting on her. This was not a time for fear to get the best of her.
Then the blips on her display indicating the locations of the general and the security force disappeared. “What the hell?” she exclaimed as she pressed commands furiously into the Mech’s computer. “QRF 1, did you see that? Did we just lose everyone?”
“I see it, Centurion 07. Looks like we lost communications with the group too.” Rook’s voice crackled over the radio in response. “Whoever they are must have either jammed out command and control center or destroyed it.”
Not good, she thought. The command and control was back at Camp Chapman and ran through the relay satellites in orbit. Whatever dropped these guys in must have taken out the satellites or worse. Fear set in again as she was thinking, they could have taken out the entire base.
Rook’s voice came back through the headset, snapping her back to reality. “Looks like we are going to be flying blind on this one. Last reports were that the group was able to retreat up to a section of the hill and have a secure position. The enemy does have Mech support and our guys are taking a beating.”
“Great,” she started. “Do we have a number of hostiles?”
“No, but I am going to drop Hernandez and Adams close to the action as we flank from the east. They are certified to use the Striker man portable missiles. They can support.”
“Understood, sir.” she stated, trying to keep the disappointment out of her response. She knew one Centurion and a couple of ground support soldiers with missiles were not going to turn the tide. Maybe just be a nuisance enough to piss them off.
They broke over the crest of the hill. She could see the flat area between her and the rest of the command group in front of them. They were engaged in combat with an unknown force. In her view, she could see the command group held the high ground on the top of the hill. She could make out tracer fire rain down on the enemy force. A few flashes of explosions lit up random spots over the rocky surface. Some of the security force still had some grenades.
Haley scanned the base of the hill, and her heart sank. The enemies had Mech support. There were two bipedal-looking Mechs that were humanoid in appearance. Both held what looked like rifles in their hands. They stood close in height to the Centurions. The other had four legs and moved across the ground like some sort of giant spider. It was sporting two cannons on the top of its torso.
There were only about two Centurions left in the fight. They were in various states of damage. It looked like they were running and firing blindly at the enemy. Ducking behind boulders and avoiding incoming fire. The three other centurions that were part of the security detail were nothing more than smoking husks of steel scattered across the ground.
She looked at her distance indicator, and it showed green for the missiles and the Micro rail gun. This meant she could use them now. She maneuvered the controls of the Mech and placed the crosshairs of the targeting display over one of the bipedal enemy Mechs that was bearing down on one of the Centurions. No missile lock. “What?” she said to herself. She flicked a switch on the control switch and changed to the Micro rail gun. No target lock either. She kept the targeting computer crosshairs over the center torso of the enemy Mech and squeezed the joy stick’s trigger. The ferrous-wrapped depleted uranium slug leapt out of muzzle of the gun at hypersonic speeds. It moved so fast Haley couldn’t see it.
Through the night vision display, the torso of the enemy Mech flashed brightly and sparks rained down all over the ground by its feet. When the brightness subsided, Haley could see a gaping hole in the torso of the Mech. She hit it a little higher that she would have liked, but it seemed to do the trick as the giant robot crumpled to the ground lifeless. The projectile must have fried the cockpit of the machine.
“Yes!” she yelled to herself pumping her fist.
“Great! Now they know we are here!” Sergeant’s Rook’s voice boomed through her headset.
“Sorry. One enemy Mech down. Be advised the Mechs are made of a material that doesn’t allow weapons lock. Hernandez and Adams will have to get close and dumb fire to be effective,” she replied.
“Copy. Give us some cover as we move into position. We are flanking from the east heading to the outcropping of rocks at the base of the hill. That should give us enough cover to offload Hernandez, Adams, and reinforce the people on the ground.”
Before she could respond a loud siren went off in her cockpit. “Shit!” she yelled out. “Weapons lock hold on, Sergeant.” On her monitor the other bipedal enemy Mech broke off his attack and was now engaging her. It leveled its weapon at her Centurion. Pressed down on her left foot pedal and swiped her foot back at the same time twisting the stick on her controls. The Centurion responded by sliding its left foot back and torso rotated to the side. This gave the assailant a smaller profile to shoot.
It apparently worked. Just as the Centurion’s torso moved, Haley noticed the enemy’s weapon recoil indicating it fired. Haley winced preparing for impact, but nothing came. “Miss!” she thought. She looked at her HUD display it indicated the Micro Rail gun was not ready to fire yet. Missiles were useless right now. She needed to buy time or close the distance to make the Gatling cannon an effective option. Then she thought of it. Flares.
She pressed a button on the panel at the base of the control stick, then she switched off her night vision. She synced the flares to the trigger. She was going to have to be quick. Haley moved her foot back into position and the Mech’s leg moved back to a square stance that faced the enemy at a 45-degree angle. Another alarm rang out. “Damn their weapons cycle fast”, she thought as the enemy Mech locked on again. “Watch your eyes! Bright light coming” She yelled through the Comms and then pressed the trigger.
It was like the sun had momentarily rose. The surrounding space around her Mech lit up as she fired all the defensive flares at once. She then pushed hard on the Mech’s throttle and the giant war machine went from a standstill to a run. Haley felt the sudden increase of the g-forces press her back into her chair as it accelerated.
She could see the enemy Mech still pointing at the spot where she used to be. A lot of expletives rang out over her headset. She could tell Rook was not pleased with her stunt. She twisted the Mech’s torso to face the enemy. The indicator for the Gatling turned green indicating she was in range. She depressed the trigger on the control stick. Silence.
“Crap!” her voice echoed out in the cockpit. She left the trigger tied to the flares, which were now depleted. She quickly set the throttle and used her left arm to press a button next to her and then returned her hand to the throttle. Backing off a little, while keeping her targeting crosshairs on the enemy, she depressed the trigger again. This time the Gatling gun rived to life. The gun belched out a barrage of bullets and tracer fire the tore across the front of the enemy Mech. Haley could make out holes being ripped open all over its armor, but the enemy war machine remained upright.
Alarm shrieked out again. Her heart sank. There was nothing she could do this time to make the enemy miss. Her Mech shook with the force of the impact and a loud bang rang out through the cockpit. Haley was thrown forward into her restraints and the straps cut into her shoulders as they fought to keep her in the seat. The Mech began to twist to the left. Haley backed off the throttle and twisted the control stick to compensate. Assi
sted by the Mech’s gyros and computer system she was able to keep it upright. Sirens rang out in the Mech and she gave a quick glance at her displays to assess the damage. She didn’t like what she saw. The computer indicated that the Centurion’s left arm was seriously damaged and the Gatling gun was rendered inoperable.
“Damn it!” she exclaimed, but there was no time to sit here. She had to move—and quick. Haley pressed hard on the throttle, and the Centurion lurched forward into a sprint. It wasn’t graceful, losing most of her left arm caused the Mech to be a little off balance, and she constantly had to fight the controls.
“If I can make it to the boulders and join the other Mechs,” she thought, “we might be able to turn this thing around.”
Her HUD indicated the enemy Mech was still standing there. She wondered if running like she did confused it for a moment. Her hypothesis was proved wrong when the on the screen, it slowly began to move to pursue. Alarms rang out again telling her that she was being targeted. Haley knew she wasn’t going to make it to cover in time. If she didn’t think of something, she was not going to survive the next few moments. She looked at the weapons status icon on the display the Micro rail gun was shown as ready. A short-lived shot of relief came over her.
Haley rapidly brought the Mech to a halt at the same time turning the Mech to the left. With the sudden change in speed and direction the Centurion’s feet began to slide out from under her. She slammed her right foot pedal out to plant the Mech’s foot into the ground to regain balance. The force of the maneuver slammed her in to the right side of her seat. Sharp pain lanced out through the side of her head and neck as her head caught the side of the head rest.
“Ow!” Haley yelled out, but she knew that she would have to try to maintain her focus. Once the Mech made the sloppy-yet-abrupt turn, she engaged the throttle again. The Centurion moved forward again just in time as the enemy slug shot through the spot where she once stood. She then twisted the control stick again to the left, lining the torso up with the target. Haley dropped her targeting crosshairs on the enemy Mech. She kept adjusting the center to compensate for her moving Centurion. She could make out the holes she already dug into the humanoid target with her now destroyed Gatling gun. She took in a deep breath as she pressed the trigger on the control stick. A loud boom rang out as the hypersonic slug erupted from the barrel of her Mech’s gun. She had to fight on the controls to maintain control as a result of the rail gun’s recoil want to push the Mech back. On her display the slug caught its left side. A bright flash engulfed the screen for a quick moment as sparks danced all over the screen. When the light disappeared, she witnessed the results of her salvo. The enemy Mech’s left side was obliterated. It slowly toppled over from the rapid loss of weight and support. It impacted the ground in a heap of metal. Haley then slowly brought her Centurion to a complete stop. She left her targeting crosshairs on the flaming pile of metal.
“Why didn’t they eject?” she wondered to herself, head pounding from the impact from earlier.
“Are you done admiring your handy work? We still have a job to do here,” Rook said, voice booming so loud in her headset it made her headache worse.
“Yes, Sergeant. I am on my way,” she replied, adjusting the volume in her headset.
“Good, because we are in position and the other two Mechs could really use your help taking this third enemy down,” Rook said with what she could make out as gun fire in the background. Haley assumed Rook’s team had engaged the other enemy ground forces.
She re-centered the Centurion’s torso and pushed forward on the throttle. The giant robot broke into a run. She closed the remaining distance between her and the other EDF Mechs. Once she arrived on the scene, her high from downing two enemy Mech’s came to a crash. She witnessed one of the teams Mechs were barely hanging together trying to run from the spider-like Mech. It didn’t last long as the legs of the Mech seem to come apart at the joints holding it together. The enemy Mech must be using some sort of energy-based weapons, she thought. They seemed to cut through the Mech like a laser scalpel through skin. The Mech collapsed under its own weight. As it was going down, Haley noticed an armored hatch blow out of the top of the Centurion, and the pilot’s chair rocketed out of the hole as they were ejected clear from the doomed machine.
The spider Mech scurried to find a new target. Haley noticed Jones’ Mech was damaged but still operational. He was hiding behind a boulder that seemed to cover most of the body of the Mech.
“Security 05, this is Centurion 07. What are you doing? Why are you hiding and not fighting?” she frustratingly asked through her headset.
“Have you seen these things? They are cutting through us like butter,” Jones replied. Haley could hear the sheer terror in his voice.
“You need to get in the fight. Together we can take this one down. This is what you are trained and paid to do, damn it!”
Silence.
Haley pounded the hand rest. With Jones out of the action she knew that it was up to her to take this monstrosity on, but she remembered she was not all alone yet. She keyed into Rook’s line and asked, “Sergeant, are those Strikers ready?”
“Yes. Ready for on your word,” Rook replied.
“Good. I will need them shortly,” she replied.
Haley glanced at her instruments and noticed that the target had turned and now was moving towards the group of soldiers deploying to support the group pinned down. It was totally ignoring her and Jones. She needed to get the enemy Mech’s attention or the ORF team would be slaughtered.
Haley looked over her display and selected the missiles and switched them from targeting to dumb fire. She knew unless she was on top of the target and it didn’t move at all, the missile had a high probability of missing. Hitting it was not the point, but she thought to herself, it would be an added bonus.
She side stepped the Centurion from its position to give her line of sight to the target. The enemy Mech was now moving left to right in her view and she noticed a boulder that would intersect the Mech’s path. She dropped her targeting crosshairs on the boulder and pressed on the trigger. The Centurion bucked as the missile launched from its right shoulder. Upon impact of the missile, the boulder exploded, raining debris all over the enemy Mech. The four-legged machine came to a halt, then turned 90 degrees to face Haley. Alarms rang out in her Mech telling her that it was now targeting her.
“Well, I guess that pissed it off,” she said to herself as she began to slide the Centurion to the left partially covering its left side behind a boulder. She noticed her rail gun had reloaded and was ready to fire. BANG! The Centurion rocked and started to spin to its left. Haley struggled to keep the machine upright as she was tossed against her restraints again, the straps digging deep into her shoulders. The pain in her head also increased from the impact as her head whipped forward.
“What the hell!” she yelled out, frantically looking over her display. Her rail gun was now showing black. She concluded the enemy machine must have gotten a shot off first and hit the rail gun. The rail gun’s charged capacitors must have exploded from the resulting damage.
“God damn it!” she exclaimed. She keyed into the Comms, “Jones, I need you to man up and get back into this fight or we are all dead!”
More silence.
Looking at her screen she could see the enemy target was closing fast. Her hope now was that she could get a direct line shot with the missiles before that thing would slag her Mech with its energy weapons.
“Centurion 07, we got you.” A unfamiliar voice came through her helmet. She watched the screen and noticed the target had stopped and it was close enough for missiles. The ORF Striker team must have done something she thought. She slid her hobbled Mech to the side, giving it line of sight on the enemy machine.
In her view, she could tell that one of the team’s missiles hit their target. One of the Mech’s two energy weapons was now smoking. She also noticed the Mech had turned towards the incoming fire and it was giving Haley
a beautiful broadside profile. She dropped her targeting crosshairs on to the center of the giant spider-like machine and pressed the trigger.
Click.
Confused, she surveyed her cockpit for answers. The missiles were showing armed, but they were not firing. She didn’t have time to sit back and do a complete diagnosis of why, she had to act fast. That machine was not going to keep ignoring her. She had to think of something fast, and the head-splitting pain wasn’t helping. She looked around and found the answer. The panel behind her throttle controls were the switches for the hoppers. They were jets attached to the back of the Centurions to allow for them to navigate over some obstacles. They were rarely used because it made the Mech almost uncontrollable, but it was her only option at this point.
“Well, Dad, I hope this will make you happy,” Haley said to herself as she flicked the switches arming the boosters. The indicator lights went green indicating they were armed. “This is insane,” she thought as she grabbed the throttle. She took a deep breath and pushed the throttle forward, bringing the Centurion up to speed. It was harder to control with all the damage it took. Closing the distance quick she knew timing was everything. Haley noticed the target begin to turn towards her. She looked at her distance. It read 50 meters. “Now!” she yelled as she stomped down on both peddles.
The Centurion launched in the air, and the force of the sudden direction change pushed Haley back into her seat. She quickly grabbed the handle between her legs and pulled it. A loud explosion rang out in the cockpit as the explosive bolts engaged and the hatch flung away from the Mech. Haley, for an instant, could feel her stomach sink as the Centurion lost thrust and fell. The moment was brief, as the ejection seat’s rockets fired and she shot out of her Mech. The sudden acceleration pressed down on her body like 100 elephants sitting on her chest. The pain in her head increased to a searing pain as her vision began to tunnel into blackness.
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Stollar's Gambit Page 9